The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has resolved to enforce a High Court order to remove the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle from the Afram Plains.
The REGSEC arrived at the decision after a meeting held on Monday to deliberate on the shooting, by suspected Fulani herdsmen, of four security personnel, three soldiers and a policeman, of the Operation Cow Leg, a taskforce set up to evict the herdsmen and their cattle from the plains.
Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, led members of the REGSEC to meet the chiefs and people of Agogo yesterday, and re-echoed their readiness to enforce to the latter, the court’s eviction order.
He asked the people to refrain from any attack on the herdsmen and their cattle but report their presence in any farm to the security while measures were being put in place to commence the evacuation exercise.
The personnel were said to be on their way to where some cattle were grazing to carry out their eviction duty when they came under fire.
There had been an age old battle between marauding Fulani herdsmen and residents of Agogo.
A Kumasi High Court, presided over by Justice Eric Baah, on January 20, 2012, ordered the REGSEC to remove the herdsmen and their cattle, with immediate effect, from the plains, when the case was taken there when it heated up.
That, followed a suit filed by a lawyer, Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, against the Attorney General to expedite action on the Fulani herdsmen saga.
It was quite a scene at the court premises on the day, as some youth of Agogo greeted the court ruling with a brass band songs and dance.
Mr Anyimadu Antwi submitted that quite apart from the herdsmen allegedly raping women, killing and robbing the inhabitants, the forest the cattle had been grazing, is a reserve and not individual lands.
And, even if the lands were for individuals the Traditional Council had no right to give it out to the herdsmen, he indicated.
Then, an 11- member committee was set up to draw an evacuation plan to finally remove the cattle from the Afram Plains to bring to an end the troubles between the herdsmen and the inhabitants in the area.
Chaired by the then Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, the committee comprised the Concerned Citizens of Agogo, Agogo Youth Association, Traditional Council, cattle owners and Fulani herdsmen as well as security agencies, the committee members had to act with immediate effect.
But six years down the lane, nothing practical has been done to enforce the court’s judgment.
Meanwhile, one of the injured personnel has been discharged while the three others including the policeman have been referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
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